Businesses use Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems to manage customer service contact points. An IVR system uses a navigable menu tree to which responses, either voice or Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF), lead a caller to a branch of the menu tree. It may take a caller several minutes, and or several navigation attempts to reach his or her desired service contact point. That is, the navigation may be extensive before a caller reaches the desired contact point. As businesses seek to control costs, particularly in telephone bank personnel, IVR systems will continue to be popular to manage common telephone inquiries and route telephone callers to the proper live associate.
Most callers find IVR systems difficult to navigate. On the other hand, if an IVR caller repeatedly calls the same IVR system, the user may find the navigation task repetitive and time consuming. There is little that a caller can do to speed up the process of going through an IVR system. If the caller is a frequent user of the system, the caller may remember what numbers to press however, most users do not. Additionally, many callers press “0” in order to skip the menus and connect to a live person, but many systems have moved this option elsewhere, forcing callers to proceed through the navigation system to learn which key to press to connect to a live person.
When a caller with a mobile communication device or a particular type of landline telephone navigates an IVR system and the caller opts to respond to prompts of the IVR system with DTMF tones, the caller must repeatedly place the telephone to his or her ear, to listen for the prompts of the IVR system, and then remove the telephone from his or ear to press the keypad of the telephone to make the response to the prompt. The process of entering keypresses may make the navigation of the IVR system very slow. However, the alternative of entering voice responses that can be misunderstood by the voice recognition software employed by the IVR system, may also add time as well to the navigation process.